IT AI Index
Index › Identity and access › MFA › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

Multi-factor authentication for enterprise buyers

Asked as “MFA solution”, and as “multi-factor authentication tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Microsoft Entra ID
Contested
40% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessCisco Duo45%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketCisco Duo42%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseMicrosoft Entra ID40%ContestedThis page

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Microsoft Entra ID40%0%49endorsed leader
02Cisco Duo30%4%52endorsed leader
03Okta26%19%53accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
06RSA SecurID0%25%16criticized challenger
04YubiKey0%3%29accepted challenger
05Ping Identity0%0%27accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Cisco Duo vs Microsoft Entra IDCisco Duo vs OktaMicrosoft Entra ID vs Okta

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Microsoft Entra ID40%
02Cisco Duo30%
03Okta26%
04YubiKey0%
05Ping Identity0%
06RSA SecurID0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Okta
19%
10 of 53 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Avoid Okta** for a pure MFA project unless you require its extensive third-party SSO integration capabilities” GLM 4.7 FlashX, budget prompt
RSA SecurID
25%
4 of 16 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“RSA SecurID legacy OTP | **Phase out** for modern needs” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Microsoft Authenticator
33%
3 of 9 labels negative · 3 of 12 models
“software authenticator apps (like Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator generating time-based one-time passwords) is better than SMS but has significant drawbacks” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Cisco Duo
4%
2 of 52 labels negative · 2 of 12 models
“Cisco Duo is a market leader, but specific implementation flaws and supply chain risks make it a cautionary example.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 908 links across 254 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

startwithidentity.com
34 answers · 47 citations · 10 models
rippling.com
vendor site · Rippling32 answers · 33 citations · 9 models
workos.com
vendor site · WorkOS21 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
decryptiondigest.com
20 answers · 27 citations · 7 models
miniorange.com
vendor site · miniOrange20 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
oloid.com
19 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
learn.microsoft.com
vendor site · Microsoft16 answers · 22 citations · 6 models
okta.com
vendor site · Okta16 answers · 21 citations · 10 models
authx.com
15 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
datawiza.com
vendor site · Datawiza14 answers · 15 citations · 7 models
checkthat.ai
14 answers · 14 citations · 9 models
expertinsights.com
vendor site · Expert Insights14 answers · 14 citations · 9 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

rippling.com/blog/mfa-providers
28 answers · 9 models
startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-mfa-for-enterprises
23 answers · 9 models
decryptiondigest.com/blog/enterprise-mfa-platform-comparison-2026-duo-okta-…
19 answers · 7 models
oloid.com/blog/multi-factor-authentication-solutions
19 answers · 9 models
startwithidentity.com/articles/top-10-mfa-solutions-enterprises
19 answers · 10 models
workos.com/blog/top-mfa-providers-2026
16 answers · 8 models
authx.com/blog/best-mfa-solutions
15 answers · 9 models
expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/the-top-multi-factor-auth…
14 answers · 9 models
miniorange.com/blog/mfa-providers
14 answers · 9 models
checkthat.ai/answers/what-are-the-best-multi-factor-authentication-solutions
12 answers · 8 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best MFA solution for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which multi-factor authentication tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade MFA solutions and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best MFA solution for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a MFA solution. What should we look at?”Negative“Which MFA solutions should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Microsoft Entra ID, Okta
Two alternativesCisco Duo, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra IDChanged
Two alternativesCisco Duo, Okta
Cisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID
Five alternativesIBM Verify, Inteca Managed Keycloak, Okta, PingID, YubiKey
no first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniMicrosoft Entra ID
One alternativeCisco Duo
OktaChanged
One alternativeMicrosoft Entra ID
no first choiceMicrosoft Entra ID
One alternativeOkta
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashOkta
Six alternativesAuth0, Cisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity, WorkOS, YubiKey
Cisco DuoChanged
Five alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta, Ping Identity, PingID, YubiKey
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta
Two alternativesCisco Duo, Ping Identity
Cisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID
One alternativeYubiKey
Cisco Duo
Four alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta, Ping Identity, YubiKey
nothing named
Perplexity SonarCisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID
Three alternativesAuth0, Silverfort, WorkOS
Microsoft Entra IDChanged
Three alternativesCisco Duo, Okta, Ping Identity
no first choiceCisco Duo, Microsoft Entra IDagainst: Oktano first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastCisco Duo
Three alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta, PingOne MFA
Cisco DuoHeld
Two alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta
Cisco Duo, Okta
Three alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Ping Identity, RSA SecurID
against: Beyond Identity, HYPRMicrosoft Entra ID
One alternativeCisco Duo
against: Okta, YubiKeyCisco Duo
Four alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta, Ping Identity, WorkOS
against: Authy, Google Authenticator
Mistral SmallMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta
Two alternativesAuth0, Cisco Duo
OktaChanged
Two alternativesCisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID
Cisco Duo
Six alternativesMicrosoft Authenticator, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Ping Identity, Thales SafeNet Trusted Access, YubiKey
against: RSA SecurIDMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta
Two alternativesCisco Duo, RSA ID Plus
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashAuth0, WorkOS
Five alternativesCisco Duo, Clerk, Descope, Microsoft Entra ID, YubiKey
against: OktaOktaChanged
Three alternativesCisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID, YubiKey
Cisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta
Two alternativesPing Identity, YubiKey
Microsoft Entra ID
One alternativeCisco Duo
against: Oktano first choice
Six alternativesCisco Duo, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Okta Verify, PingID, Yubico/YubiEnterprise
against: Cisco Duo, Microsoft Authenticator, Okta, RSA SecurID
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceOktaChangedCisco Duo
Four alternativesHYPR, Microsoft Authenticator, RSA SecurID, YubiKey
Microsoft Entra ID, Oktano first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta
Four alternativesAuth0, Feitian, Ping Identity, YubiKey
Cisco Duo, OktaChanged
One alternativeMicrosoft Entra ID
Cisco Duo, Okta
Four alternativesHYPR, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity, YubiKey
against: RSA SecurIDMicrosoft Entra ID
Two alternativesCisco Duo, Ping Identity
against: Oktano first choiceagainst: Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator
Kimi K2Cisco Duo
Two alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta
Cisco DuoHeld
Three alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta, Ping Identity
Cisco Duo
Six alternativesMicrosoft Authenticator / Entra ID MFA, Okta, Okta Verify, Ping Identity, RSA SecurID, YubiKey
Microsoft Entra ID
One alternativeCisco Duo
against: OktaMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta
Two alternativesCisco Duo, Ping Identity
nothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXCisco Duo, Okta
Four alternativesAuth0, Microsoft Entra External ID, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra IDChanged
Two alternativesCisco Duo, Okta
no first choiceCisco Duo
One alternativeMicrosoft Entra ID
against: Oktano first choiceagainst: Cisco Duo, Microsoft Authenticator, Okta
MiniMax M2.5Cisco Duo
Two alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta
Microsoft Entra IDChanged
Three alternativesCisco Duo, Okta, RSA SecurID
no first choiceCisco Duo, Microsoft Entra IDagainst: Oktano first choiceagainst: RSA SecurID
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:07no06 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:39yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:50yes1122 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 14:14yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:31yes3725 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:01yes78 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:13yes2338 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:40yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:08no041 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:19yes1022 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:09yes3359 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:20yes2040 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:57no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:43yes26 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:29yes818 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:32yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:23yes3415 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 14:03yes2012 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:33yes1720 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:05yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:59yes1058 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:17yes1455 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:48yes2582 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:02no014 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:44yes1412 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:58yes48 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 14:01yes2031 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:33yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:29yes3118 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:03yes911 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:56yes1823 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:25yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:44yes538 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:38yes1442 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:49no084 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:30yes1021 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:10yes3331 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:50yes26 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:46yes1924 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:02yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:14yes2412 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:47yes56 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:05yes2024 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:48yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:40yes537 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:11yes1020 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 14:09yes2856 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:09yes1446 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:26yes1911 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:03no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:54yes1225 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:46yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:55yes1512 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:48no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:44yes2628 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:43yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:10yes557 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:19yes1560 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:48yes18118 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:08no013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:10yes1814 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:33yes35 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:05yes1525 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:36yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:49yes2311 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:55yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:56yes2929 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:35yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:33yes1044 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:27yes2841 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:51yes27180 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:23yes1652 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Okta Workforce Identity read as Okta
Okta Workforce Identity Cloud read as Okta
Ping read as Ping Identity
RSA read as RSA SecurID
Unresolved, counted raw
AuthX
FIDO2 / WebAuthn security keys
FaceID
Inteca Managed Keycloak
Microsoft Authenticator / Entra ID MFA
PingOne MFA
Thales SafeNet
Touch ID
Yubico/YubiEnterprise
macOS Touch ID
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in identity and access

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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